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City spares the salt to save environment

If it looks as if there isn't as much salt on Toronto's roads and sidewalks as there used to be, it is a sign of the environmentally conscious times.

The city has reduced the salt it pours onto streets by about 15 per cent over the last few years, due to its "salt management plan," and some technological innovations that allow it to be more precisely targeted.

"The idea is to put down enough salt to do the job, but no more," says Peter Noehammer, one of Toronto's transportation service directors.

"We are trying to be diligent and have respect for the environment and not over-apply salt. But I can be confident in saying we are still striving to keep the roads in a safe condition so that we are not, by default, creating another problem."

The issue of how much salt is enough came into focus after an email from reader Kelly Cunningham, who said the sidewalks between her home on Birchmount Ave. and her kids' school, on St. Clair Ave., are not adequately salted.

Cunningham, who walks her kids to school, says the only time it's applied in sufficient doses is "when I call the city and beg for salt."

We did a story about it, which sent us in search of more information about spreading salt.

Noehammer said he couldn't respond specifically about the levels of salt used on Birchmount and St. Clair because he wasn't aware of the details, but he said Cunningham's observation that not as much salt is spread now as a half-dozen years ago is correct.

In 2001, Environment Canada released a five-year study that assessed the negative impact of road salt on streams and rivers, soil, plants and vegetation and widlife, said Noehammer.

Transportation officials were already aware of the damaging effects of salt on road infrastructure, vehicles and even parking garages, so there was soon widespread acknowledgement by municipalities across Canada that road salt needed to be used more sparingly, he explained.

They formed a "multi-stakeholder working group" to come up with ways to reduce the environmental impact of road salt, said Noehammer, partly due to fears that Ottawa would declare it a toxic substance, requiring them to find alternatives that would not work as well.

Toronto came up with a salt management plan in 2002 to head off such a move, he said, with emphasis on methods that would reduce the amounts used, while maintaining a similar level of safety.

"There really isn't any alternative that provides the same level of performance at a similar cost, so it was a real concern."

One of the big questions was: "When you're spreading it on the road, can you do it in a more regulated way?" Noehammer said.

Little things, like paying closer attention to the weather forecast and using pavement temperature sensors, were introduced, which allowed officials to make better judgment calls on when and where to use salt, he explained.

For instance, patrol trucks can use an infrared beam that reflects back from the road to relay the pavement temperature. In late fall or early winter, the air temperature may be below freezing, but if the asphalt is retaining warmth, surface moisture likely won't freeze, meaning salt isn't necessary.

Until recently, the driver of a salt truck would decide how much salt to spread, and where, he said. But the trucks are now outfitted with a computer program that automatically spreads the right amount of salt according to conditions, said Noehammer.

Many trucks are also equipped with tanks that contain a brine made from salt and water, which is more effective in freeze-and-thaw conditions than rock salt, and also requires smaller amounts, while others spread salt that has been coated in a chloride-based solution that makes the salt stick to the icy road, instead of bouncing when it hits the pavement.

The city calculated its annual salt usage over a 25-year period, which worked out to between 130,000 and 140,000 tonnes, he said. "In the last five years, we've brought it down to 110,000 to 120,000, as an average."

While some people felt more comfortable with the old ways, when intersections and sections of sidewalk were doused with ankle-deep salt, Noehammer says the new methods are more effective and less costly.

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